…Sabes que significa pun?

Today we’ll break down the article presented the other day. It is brimming with coffee and puns. There’s great vocabulary in it but first we start by counting the number of puns. Puns are word games where one word is used but has several meanings other than the intended or where a similar sounding word is used instead of the proper word.

Many newspapers love to write in puns for their titles or descriptions and the WSJ was no different. I counted 3 puns in last week’s post. How many did you count?

Filtering Through… (graph title)
Filter is a verb which means to screen or eliminate some elements in a group based on certain properties. We filter data like on an excel sheet. But we also filter our coffee when we use a paper or metal filter (noun).

Been awhile since you read english? Are you rusty? Probably not as rusty as the coffee crop in Colombia! The folks at WSJ covered an interesting situation developing in Colombia. We’ll break down some of the language in our next post. The article has some puns or the humerous use of a word that has different meanings because of the context. The article’s title is a good example: Trouble Brews for Coffee (because you can brew coffee too!)

On the steep and verdant slopes here, an orange-colored fungus is laying waste to hundreds of thousands of acres of coffee.

Bloomberg News. A farmer holds a leaf from a Colombian coffee plant that is infected with the rust fungus.

The infestation, and efforts to eradicate it, raises the specter of higher coffee futures—and more expensive cups of espresso—for months to come.

The fungus is known as roya, the Spanish word for “coffee rust.” It grows on the leaves of a coffee plant and chokes off nutrients to the beans. Encouraged by years of torrential rains, roya has spread throughout Colombia, forcing farmers to pull out their plants and replace them with fungus-resistant seedlings.

Juan María Cañar, a 64-year-old farmer in the Nariño region in southwest Colombia, said he was forced to replant much of his acreage. He usually produces 1,500 kilograms (3,300 pounds) of coffee beans. “This season, I’ll have about half that,” he said.

The fungus has ruined what was supposed to be a good year for Colombia, the world’s second-largest producer of high-quality arabica coffee, the mild-flavored, hand-picked beans for which coffee traders usually pay a premium.

As much as 10% of the country’s coffee-growing region, or about 300,000 acres, were replanted this year in a bid to get rid of the scourge. New plants typically take as long as three years before they produce their beans. This is likely to restrict supplies, sending prices higher.

Investors have been paying scant attention to the potential crisis. Futures for arabica coffee, the variety most commonly brewed in the world, have been falling along with other commodities, amid gloomy headlines out of Europe.

However, the declines are smaller than those for other exotic agricultural commodities. Coffee prices have fallen 7.4% this year, while cotton has dropped 40%, and cocoa is down 28%. On Tuesday, coffee for March delivery settled 1.5% higher, at $2.2280 per pound.

“It’s not selling off quite like the others are,” said Kona Haque, a commodities analyst atMacquarie Bank. “Coffee is holding its ground.”

Analysts say the warning signs flashing in the coffee market will soon become more visible through the uncertainty caused by Europe’s debt crisis. “The fundamental picture is taking a back seat because everyone is worried about Europe,” said Marcio Bernardo, an analyst at brokerage Newedge.

The problems in Colombia come as global coffee supplies already are strained. The last crop out of Brazil, the supplier of more than one-third of the world’s coffee, was a relatively small one. Additionally, Central America was hit by heavy rains at the start of its harvest in October, which are expected to clip production in El Salvador and Guatemala.

World output of arabica coffee will shrink 4.3% to 79.6 million bags in the current crop year, which began in October, according to the London-based International Coffee Organization.

The National Federation of Coffee Growers of Colombia, or Fedecafe, isn’t giving a firm forecast for next year’s crop, saying estimates are hard to make given the large amount of rain that came down this winter.

For the past three seasons, the quasigovernmental organization set lofty production goals but came up short. The fact that they are demurring this year is telling, says Jack Scoville, a broker at Price Futures Group.

“They’re trying to be very cautious as to what they say,” Mr. Scoville said.

Analysts say that in the best-case scenario, Colombia’s output in 2012 could be comparable to this year’s, which Fedecafe expects to total around eight million bags, each weighing 60 kilograms. In a good year, Colombia produces about 11 million bags.

Meanwhile, demand for coffee is growing. Consumption has risen 2.5% every year on average over the past decade, the ICO said, citing the growth of niche markets and new consumers in emerging markets.

Problems in the euro zone could pinch global demand as the European Union has the highest coffee consumption per capita in the world.

Another factor that could mitigate Colombia’s production problems is Brazil, which is forecast to harvest a big crop next year.

Last week, Brazil’s National Coffee Council said the country will produce as much as 52 million bags, a 18% increase over last year. The council’s forecast is conservative compared with private estimates that are closer to 60 million bags.

However, Brazil’s harvest doesn’t begin until May. Until then, the market must grapple with another possible shortfall from Colombia.

Glen’s the man
going to work.
Got his tie
Got a vision
Middle management is right in his grasp
Its a dream he will never let die
Glen’s the man of the hour
He’s the king of his cube
Status quo reports have finally met their rival
Burning the candle at both ends
on his way to the top
He knows that one day he just could become
Supervisor

Eye of the Tiger by Survivor

Risin’ up, back on the street
took my time, took my chances
went the distance
now i’m back on my feet
just a man and his will to survive
So many times, it happened too fast
you trade your passion for glory
don’t lose your grip on the dreams of the past
you must fight just to keep them alive
1-it’s the eye of the tiger
it’s the thrill of the fight
risin’ up to the challenge
of our rival
and the last known survivor
stalks his prey in the night
and his fortune must always be
eye of the tiger
Face to face, out in the heat
hangin’ tough, stayin’ hungry
they stack the odds
still we take to the street
for the kill with the skill to survive
(repeat 1)
Risin’ up straight to the top
had the guts, got the glory
went the distance
now i’m not gonna stop
just a man and his will to survive
(repeat 1)
The eye of the tiger